“We had a great crowd today,” Janney said. “We’re thankful for all our family members and friends to come out and support us, and it’s always good to play at home.”
Miami struck quickly in the fourth minute, as they capitalized off a Hoosier turnover.
The loose ball was recovered by midfielder Paula Portugal and gave her a favorable scoring opportunity with just one Hoosier defender to beat. Portugal moved to the left side of the cage and backhanded the ball over the head of IU freshman goalkeeper Noelle Rother to give Miami a 1-0 advantage on the first shot attempt of the game.
The Redhawks were back at it five minutes later with their second scoring opportunity of the game.
The ball was batted around among a cluster of players in front of the net. Rother made the initial save, but the ball rebounded up to Miami midfielder Kate Mcglaughlin, who raised her stick to send her shot over the head of Rother, and give Miami an early two-goal advantage.
“They had great players in preseason and scored a couple good goals on us,” Janney said. “Portugal had a fantastic goal today, but we just have to finish on attack. We’re getting some great chances, and the work rate is there, we just have to finish.”
The Miami defense stood in the first half, as the Hoosiers could never put a premium attack on the Redhawks and were held to zero shots on goal heading into the locker room at halftime.
“We came out with a press that we thought would work really well, and they were beating us on the inside-out balls. We were having trouble intercepting them,” senior forward Nicole Volgraf said. “It just took us a little too long to figure it out.”
The Hoosiers came out in the second half with a different offensive approach than they brought in the first. Junior defender Kate Barber was able to put the first shot on goal in the 46th minute of the game, and IU had another scoring opportunity on their first penalty corner, which ultimately amounted to nothing.
In the 55th minute, Barber delivered a ball inside the circle from 23 feet out, and Volgraf was able to get a stick on it to deflect the ball into the net from six feet away, cutting the Hoosier deficit to 2-1.
“We started connecting better, we have the potential to play great and score some beautiful goals. I’m so happy for Nicole to score that goal today,” Janney said. “We still need to find ways to make in-game adjustments in the first half, not wait till halftime to work things out.”
Portugal shut the door for Miami in the 67th minute after the Hoosiers had a couple scoring opportunities coming from a penalty corner and aggressive offensive attacks.
The midfielder netted her second goal of the contest, as she dribbled into the circle, had the ball knocked away, regained possession and spun away from Rother to find the back of the net.
“They came prepared, and they beat us to the 50-50 balls,” Volgraf said. “They played a good game, but we should have played a better game, and there is no reason why they should have beat us today.”
